Top positive review

I absolutely love the Golden Sun series, and actually bought my 2DS in order to play this game. While not as good as the first two games, I still love Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and hope that they do make the fourth game in the series. Several complaints: the tutorial at the beginning is a bit annoying if you already know how to play, there was a decrease in graphics quality from the first two games, and there are some unnecessary points of no return. It would also be nice if they allowed you to skip cut scenes. However, I really enjoyed the game. I love the world building and all the hints at previous civilizations, and the gameplay is fun. This game was definitely worth buying a new gaming system for.

Top critical review

Man, this game is fantastic, because it tugs on all of the right heartstrings. It's almost identical to previous titles in the series, and with good reason, there's not much in the formula that needed to be tweaked. Visually it's very impressive, and the summons are cooler than ever. Mechanics are identical to the earlier titles, and the puzzles are still present.

The only problems with this game are that it's waaaaaaaay too easy. Not a single boss was hard to beat. I didn't lose once during my original playthrough, and that's without collecting all of the Djinni or summons. None of the puzzles stymied me for more than a few minutes, and the one particularly tough puzzle was easily solved with the use of a power you gain in the game that literally just helps you solve puzzles. Given the difficulty of the GBA titles, this is a bit of a letdown.

The other problem is that the entire plot, while somewhat compelling, ends in a ridiculously obvious cliffhanger, leaving so many questions unanswered that the game may as well have been subtitled "part 1." The game isn't short (took me about 24 hours to beat) but plot-wise, it feels like it's over when you'd just begun. This is very similar to the original golden sun, though, so there's probably some sort of weird Japanese repetition/imitation thing going on here.

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I absolutely love the Golden Sun series, and actually bought my 2DS in order to play this game. While not as good as the first two games, I still love Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and hope that they do make the fourth game in the series. Several complaints: the tutorial at the beginning is a bit annoying if you already know how to play, there was a decrease in graphics quality from the first two games, and there are some unnecessary points of no return. It would also be nice if they allowed you to skip cut scenes. However, I really enjoyed the game. I love the world building and all the hints at previous civilizations, and the gameplay is fun. This game was definitely worth buying a new gaming system for.

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To be honest, I never played Dark Dawn's predecessor, but even so, I really enjoyed this game. The battle system was unique, in using different combinations of Djinn, the collectable magical creatures that give you your abilities, to create a plethora of different tactical options. I tend to be more of the offensive "kill everything before it can touch me" type, but having to strategically spread out my Djinn left me being more creative with how I utilized each character.

The gameplay reminded me a lot of the Dragon Quest series. The plot was kind of "ehh" but was still interesting. The characters were fun and had interesting personalities that did not rely too much on tropes or stereotypes. The different countries had their own cultures, and I liked that you had a lot of freedom to explore.

There is some grinding to be done, but it wasn't as much of a chore compared to other games. Overall, it is definitely a worthwhile game, even if you are new to the series.

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I throughly enjoyed playing Golden Sun Dark Dawn, its imaginative and fun. It is a wonderful story with awesome graphics. I am an adult that loves to play RPG's on my DS. As with most RPG's one must level up and while you must do that in this game its not every second your running into invisible foes, which was a breath of fresh air. The game is really beautiful, you must collect Dijin's and each of these carry special power that allow you to unleash the most dramatic damage to your enemies. Nothing in this game was too hard, which allows for fun play, there are many challenges but you will find as I did so many hours of endless fun. The only thing I hope they do in the next Golden Sun series is to incorporate a way a "quick travel" back and forth to cities/towns you have visited before, which BTW is included as an option in most RPG's... later in the game sailing with your boat and using your maps made me wish for a magic feather of some kind that would transport. Other than that, this is game is 10 stars and I hope they make more.

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I'm a longtime fan of Golden Sun (anyone who even knows what it is has to be a long time fan...) I was thrilled when I heard about Dark Dawn, for the simple fact of getting MORE Golden Sun. The franchise does a fantastic job of taking everything great about RPGs and infusing it with its own style and innovations.

Playability: The game is easy enough to pick up for anyone, and though I highly recommend playing the first two, the in-game encyclopedia and dialogue cover just about everything. No puzzles are too tough or require heading over to a FAQs page, but I do recommend exploring the heck out your environments because just about every room, hut, or town has dozens of secrets (even it its just an herb). Unlike the first two games, enemies don't seem to appear as often during puzzle-solving (which there is A LOT of) and battling avoids being tedious, since there is so much customization and leveling up. There are dozens of Djinn, Psynergies, and weapons with unique and powerful unleashing capabilities, that suddenly fighting becomes a fun way to display your latest strategy-shift or upgrades.

Entertainment: The game is beautiful; taking full advantage of the DS's graphics capabilities, environments are large and unique. Serious thought was put into aesthetics and puzzles for everything, and it shows. The most rewarding part of the game comes from pure nostalgia - taking place 30 years of ingame timeline corresponds to 7 years our time - I fondly remember the adventures of Issac and company, and the heros of past games have become the stuff of legend in Dark Dawn. There's a neat side quest to collect storybooks where the stories are told from the first two games. Battles are fun, puzzles are cool, and some of the dialogue is pretty witty.

The Drawbacks: YES there is a lot of dialogue. I enjoyed it in the other games, but sometimes it rambles too much. Toward the end of the game it also had the annoying habit of having each of your party share their thoughts on particular subjects during cut scenes as if the developers wanted to make sure everyone got enough "facetime" in the game. Also bothersome, tough-talking Tyrell seems to lose his personality halfway through the game as he has less and less to contribute. Kind of strange...oh and I think he actually has a thing for Sveta...but it's never fully realized. The worst part of the game has to be the lack of proper bosses. I can't tell you how many times I prepared my party for what would surely be an area where I would be forced into a battle with a tough boss. I healed/set Djinn/saved and got ready, but 9 times out of 10 it would just be more puzzles. Where were all the bosses? The final boss was honestly the only thing close to bosses from the old games, which were challenging and required strategy. The rest usually just require brute force after some very passive leveling up.

Overall, the game is great to play despite a few oversights and over-indulgent dialogue. Took 23 hours to beat (almost a full day...how about that?) and I look forward to the next direct sequel.

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Great game!If you liked the original Golden Sun series, you'll love this one.

My only criticism is that for better or worse, it's pretty much the exact same game as the other Golden Sun games.Nothing much new or innovative here, except for a slightly different weapon system.

Also, the dialogue still suffers from the exact same problem as the previous games: too much unnecessary fluff.You'll find yourself skipping past lots of meaningless dialogue that adds little or nothing to the plot.

Still, the gameplay is fun and addicting, the graphics are gorgeous, the music is epic.It more than makes up for its flaws.

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Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It's a sequel to the Game Boy Advance series, and this one has brought back great memories. This game has really kept its core elements of gameplay but the story is a bit underwhelming. Its hard to followup on the Original series on the game boy advanced but the gameplay was entertaining as always.

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I accidentally bought this not realizing it was for DS which I don't have. But it came wrapped in that plastic new games always come in so it was really good brand new quality. I'll probably hand it off to one of your friends who has a DS.

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This game continues the GS franchise with a new generation. I like that you can interact with characters from the previous games and the core mechanics are still here. You have the puzzles that use the powers, updated graphics, and the same fun battle system/great music that the Golden Sun series is known for. Another solid entry in the franchise that leaves me with hope that they continue the series. A great RPG for the DS.

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Man, this game is fantastic, because it tugs on all of the right heartstrings. It's almost identical to previous titles in the series, and with good reason, there's not much in the formula that needed to be tweaked. Visually it's very impressive, and the summons are cooler than ever. Mechanics are identical to the earlier titles, and the puzzles are still present.

The only problems with this game are that it's waaaaaaaay too easy. Not a single boss was hard to beat. I didn't lose once during my original playthrough, and that's without collecting all of the Djinni or summons. None of the puzzles stymied me for more than a few minutes, and the one particularly tough puzzle was easily solved with the use of a power you gain in the game that literally just helps you solve puzzles. Given the difficulty of the GBA titles, this is a bit of a letdown.

The other problem is that the entire plot, while somewhat compelling, ends in a ridiculously obvious cliffhanger, leaving so many questions unanswered that the game may as well have been subtitled "part 1." The game isn't short (took me about 24 hours to beat) but plot-wise, it feels like it's over when you'd just begun. This is very similar to the original golden sun, though, so there's probably some sort of weird Japanese repetition/imitation thing going on here.

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